[PFellah]

PRE-SEASON RESULTS (home team in all-caps)

9/20 - Capitals 3, STINGERS 1
Painful first game for the Stingers as Washington outshot the Stingers 45-12 and Mrazek got chased by goals on 3 of the Caps' first shots. On the bright side, Michael Neuvirth stood on his head with 41 saves in relief, and Jon Marchessault got a late goal to make it look more interesting than it was.

9/21 - RED WINGS 3, Stingers 2 (shoot-out)
Better. The Stingers fall into an early hole, but come back with two goals late to force overtime.Unfortunately, Detroit wins the shootout in the 5th round as Evgeny Scechnikov buried his shot while Ryan Strome missed.

9/23 - Bruins 2, STINGERS 0
The game starts off as a repeat of the Washington debacle -- Brad Marchand scores on the first shot of the game 15 seconds in, and Boston puts 8 shots up before Seattle puts on on net. However, Mrazek recovers and the game stabilizes into a back-and-forth affair. Unfortunately, Seattle never gets the equalizer and Danton Heinen adds an insurance goal with about 30 seconds left.

9/24 - JETS 4, Stingers 2
Despite giving up 48 shots, the Stingers were able to hang in there until the middle of the third period, but Blake Wheeler tallied the go-ahead goal with 9:35 left and Mark Scheifele added an insurance goal in the closing seconds.

9/26 - Stingers 3, RANGERS 2
Finally! James Neal scores the first and last Seattle goals, with a Marchessault tally sandwiched in between. Seattle almost hands the game back by giving up a penalty with about 2:30 to go, but they kill it off to hold on for the win.

9/28 - Stingers 4, OILERS 1
The good news: not just a win, but a game where we were in control the whole way. (So that's what that feels like!) The bad news: Edmonton was without their best player, as Connor McDavid was day-to-day. Still, a win's a win. Karlsson with the first goal, two by Marchessault, and the final tally of the day from defenseman Brayden McNabb.

9/29 - Sharks 2, STINGERS 1
This was a winnable game -- we outshot the Sharks 31-17, and .
had three different power plays in the 3rd period, including about a minute of 5-on-3. Just couldn't find the net enough.

So, the Stingers wrap up a 2-5 pre-season. The good news: the defense played pretty well at times, and a couple of those games could've gone the other way. The bad news: the offense was lethargic a lot of the time -- it just doesn't feel like we have the firepower to be competitive.

Next up: the regular season begins.